Dear Colleagues:
Following consultation with the faculty and staff of the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic (BLIMC) and several other colleagues, I am pleased to announce that Dr. Matthew Brenner, M.D. has agreed to serve as interim director, following the departure of current BLIMC director Dr. Bruce Tromberg. I also want to take this opportunity to congratulate Bruce on his appointment as director of National Institute for Bioengineering and Biomedical Imaging and express our deepest appreciation to him for his great contributions as director of BLIMC for the last 15 years.
Dr. Brenner, an accomplished physician and researcher, is a long-time member of the UCI community, having originally obtained his dual-undergraduate degree in biology and chemistry at UCI. Dr. Brenner returned to UCI as a member of the faculty in 1988, and in the ensuing 30 years took on a number of leadership roles including chief and director, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Division in the UCI School of Medicine, director for the Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship program, and director of the UCI Blood Gas Laboratory.
Dr. Brenner’s research has focused on photonics based translation of medical technologies towards solving unmet needs. As such his laboratory focuses primarily on using technologies developed at BLIMC to create antidotes to mass-casualty chemical exposures for industrial accidents and counter terrorism. His clinical experience is in internal medicine, and pulmonary and critical care medicine. He currently holds a joint appointment with the Department of Medicine and BLIMC.
As Interim Director, Dr. Benner will appoint three associate directors to assist with the management of critical functions during this transitional period. He will announce these appointments directly to the BLIMC community in the coming days. Provost Lavernia and I will soon begin a national search for the next director of the BLIMC. In the meantime, we want to affirm our complete support for the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic and our confidence in Dr. Brenner’s ability to lead the BLIMC during the transition.
Please join us in welcoming Dr. Brenner to his new role as interim director.
Sincerely,
Pramod Khargonekar, Ph.D.
Vice Chancellor for Research
Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science